Destructor

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Destructor \De*struc"tor\, n. [L., from destruere. See
     {Destroy}, and cf. {Destroyer}.]
     1. A destroyer. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Fire, the destructor and the artificial death of


              things.                               --Boyle.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A furnace or oven for the burning or carbonizing of
        refuse; specif. (Sewage Disposal), a furnace (called in
        full
  
     {refuse destructor}) in which the more solid constituents of
        sewage are burnt. Destructors are often so constructed as
        to utilize refuse as fuel.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     3. (Computers) in object-oriented programming, a function
        which destroys an object which was previously created by a
        different function.
        [PJC]

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  destructor
       
           A {function} provided by a {class} in {C++} and
          some other {object-oriented languages} to delete an object,
          the inverse of a {constructor}.
       
          (1998-04-28)